Rod Parsley - Political Activism

Political Activism

Parsley is a political independent. He is a critic of liberal positions on social issues, including abortion and the movement to expand the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. But he has also worked on behalf of prison re-entry legislation, women's rights initiatives and anti-poverty programs. His most recent book, "Living on Our Heads," singles out liberals Chris Matthews, Bart Stupak, Mia Farrow and the late Christopher Hitchens for praise.

Parsley became increasingly involved in U.S. politics following his work on the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. During the summer of 2004, Parsley announced the establishment of the Center for Moral Clarity. He openly criticized Sweden for the conviction of Åke Green under Sweden's hate crimes legislation.

On October 3, 2004, Parsley gave a sermon titled "Uncensored: While Freedom Still Rings". In the two-part sermon, Parsley expressed opposition to the view that there is a separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution; to same-sex marriage; to partial-birth abortion; to hate speech legislation in California, Canada, and Sweden; to sexual orientation themes in children's books; to racism; and to poverty. Parsley has said that the U.S. government, by funding Planned Parenthood, is complicit in "genocide" against African Americans, because Planned Parenthood performs abortions in the black community.

A few weeks before the 2004 elections, Parsley encouraged his congregation and television audience to vote for Ohio's state constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The amendment passed by a wide margin of voters from both political parties. Parsley has also encouraged citizens of other states with similar marriage amendments on their ballots to vote similarly, and headlined the "Silent No More" tour to register Christian voters.

Parsley has called upon Christians to counter the claims of Islam, noting that it is an "anti-Christ religion" predicated on "deception" and "America was founded in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed." The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, "received revelations from demons and not from the true God." And he emphasizes this point: "Allah was a demon spirit."